Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-09-24
The BLACK ROT.
THIS OLD ENEMY TO GRAPE VINES
AS SEEN IN FRANCE.
The Extent and Effect Of Its Vista
Gon-Its Long Residence in Am
erica and Injuries Inflicted.


scourge which is threatening to devastate
the unhappy vineyards of the West before
t&ey have had full time to recover from
the fatal inroad Of the phylloxera. 1t has
been recognized during the present season
that fungus hitherto almost unknown in
Europe, bur singularly fatal to the vine,
has made Its appearance over large dis
trict of the Garonne, and has very
naturally caused extreme alarm among the
already half-ruined wine-growers. The
first suspicion that any one had of the ex-
istence of this plague in France goes back
no further than two years ago. When the
grapes were ripening in 1885, the manager
of an estate on the southern slope of the
Cevennes, near Ganges, in the Herault,
observed that his grapes were shriveling,
and presently that they turned black. He
had never seen this phenomenon before, and
he collected some specimens of the sick
grapes, and took them down to the college
of Montpelier, where there is special
school of viticulture. They were ex-
amined there by experts and at last pro-
nounced to be stricken with the malady
known in America as black rot This
name has been officially recognized in
France, without any attempt at transla-
ton. The Director of the Montpelier
School of Niticulture recognized AT once
the gravity of the situation, and proceeded
to make an attempt at destroying the fun
gus. Elaborate efforts were made in the
late autumn and winter of 1885 to eradicate
the pest, and it was hoped with success
But next year it appeared not only in the
original vineyard near Ganges, but in
several other estates in the uplands of
Uerault.
Under these circumstances the danger
became more than local administration
could venture to deal with, and the Gov
ernment was appealed to. The Minister
of Agriculture instructed NJ. Prillieux,
who is well known for his practical and
theoretical researches into the principles
of that science, to proceed to the Herault,
and to report on the condition of the vines
His first experience was propitious. He
found that the black rot had not extended
to SO great an extent as was feared, that
the atmospheric conditions in 1886 seemed
to be unfavorable to it, and that really
there was little sign of the malady left,
further than certain small tawny spots, on
the leaves alone, which marks, when exam
ined, were found to be full of little black
dots. The grapes themselves escaped, and
the loss to the vintage of 1886 was little or
nothing. The affair had attracted slight
public notice; and the report that it had
almost disappeared iii the second year
III =. =, Ia.
forgotten. NJ. Prillieux returned to his
customary duties.
Unhappily the restoration of public con-
tidence was premature. In July of the
present year NJ. Prillieux received news
not this time from the Mediterranean, but
from the far richer Atlantic watershed,
which caused him immediatelySto commu-
nicate again with the Government. The
result was that he was desired to proceed
at once to the valley of the Garonne and
his report, which has just been published,
Is sufficiently grave to cause, as it has done,
something like panic The black rot,
which had never been heard of
west of the Cevennes, was suddenly
perceived last July, simultaneously
in several of the vineyards which
surround the city of Agen, in the Tarn-et-
Garonne. The suddenness of the apparition
was extraordinary. According to the
evidence of number OF yigneronS, the blacl;
rot was not seen until July 18th, precisely
on which date, after an extremely hot
| day, followed by a storm, there APP
Feared shriveled grapes on punches which
had previously been perfectly healthy, and
these rapidly spread until the entire bunch
fa.f II tod ~ Nj Dill
| lieux that, although the local men assert
with confidence that the malady has been
| hitherto unknown in the valley of the Ga
| rome, it has probably been lurking there
for some time, although unsupported and
but little developed. He was informed by
| a proprietor whose vineyard lies under the
classic towers of Montesquieu, that his
vines withered in 1885 in Il mode which
he supposed was due to some unusual force
| m the suns rays, but which NJ. Prillieux
| attributes to the fungus. There is, ut any
| rate, no doubt of the serious nature of the
plague this autumn. Along the Garonne
| from Agen down to st. Macaire there runs
lateral canal to aid the navigation of the
stream. The upper part of the island
formed by the river aud this canal-from
| Agen, that is to say, down to the mouth of
the Lots at present the main thcater Of
| the damage done. Along this fertile and
! watered valley the black rot has spread
| with the most alarming rapidly. 1t the
| middle of July the plague made It's ap-
pearance; before the end of the month
| three-fourti S of the grapes in most of the
vineyards in the district we have indicated
were shriveled. The malady spread at the
same Sine up the valley of the Baise, to the
valuable vineyards which surround the
town of Nerac. The reader who glances
at the map, and draws an equiIateral tri-
angle in the center of Lot-et- Garonne. with
Agen, Aiguiilon, and Nerac at its three
points, may realize how important the dis
trict is within which, owing to black rot,
the vine harvest this year is complete
failure
The fungus which has caused all this
alarm and distress has long been known in
America, although we have hitherto en-
.joyed an immunity from It's visits in
Europe. At the first start, the appearance
of the vine-leaves and the grapes suggests
that the enemy is the ordinary mildew,
which is so common result of extreme
heat and sudden storms OF rain. The grapes
are seen to have spots of clear rose-color
upon them, and these ruby stains rapidly
spread over the surface The difference
becomes apparent in the next stage; for,
while the mildew spots fade to tawny
brown, and remain that color, the stains Of
the phoma gricoia, which is the scientific
name of the black rot, turn to a dark vio-
let, first of all to Il hvacinthine tint, then
as deep and opaque as the hue of cooked
prune. The surface is by this time covered
with black POWDER which is really the
spores of the ptoma in immense numbers
and ready for reproduction. NJ PriHieux
has been unable, except with powerful
microscope, to discover any difference be-
tween the surface of the grapes attacked
by miidew and of those attacked by black
rot until the violet stage in the latter com
menees; and this confusion of the initial
states Of the two maladies without question
involves serious complication of the diff
culties of the situation. On the vine
leaves the PhomG makes the tawny spots
which were originally noted at Gauges.
and the tiny black dots are receptacles of
pores. it is peculiar aggravation of the
distress caused by these fungoid maladies
that their pewets of reproduction are so
tremendous tbat the escape of single
leaf or a handful Of tendrels Is quite
enough to make the destruction of a whole
vineyard useless On one dark violet